BuzzFix: Why Sabyasachi's Unsmiling Models Have Left Indian Men With Bleeding Hearts

You would think that a Sabyasachi model, if anyone, would be exempt from criticism from the male gaze but alas, your garden variety sexism on Desi social media is a gift that keeps on giving. The male gaze has so far been unable to make up its mind on what the ideal woman looks like: on the one hand, they like ’em all sad, subdued, tremulous and always slightly tearful à la Aditi Rao Hydari in most movies; on the other, they can’t quite handle a woman looking sombre and unlike the standard Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Tweet after tweet, mostly from Indian men, calls Sabyasachi models “widows”, “depressed”, “rudaalis”; one says, “These days it’s hard to say if the model is male or female. It’s clear that it’s not really a Sabyasachi model who has upset Indian men’s sense of aesthetics; rather, it’s what the model may be representing with her skin colour, her demeanour, and even her gaze. On Akshay Tritiya & Eid – festivals of celebration and happiness, 8 pages of fashion ad in TOI but full of lifeless, sad & depressed models.As an advertising professional, I believe, mimicking sad, drugged & depressed lifestyle of the West is a dangerous trend.… pic.twitter.com/6sOkmA4uGJ — Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri April 22, 2023 One can’t be sure what kind of life you could lead to be perpetually frothing at the mouth with incessant joyfulness.